I fully agree with El Jefe… i am fed up and the game against NY was the last strike… i mean we tried coaches, moving players, ect… im done getting season tickets

LBJ: “If I’ve lost Dustin, I’ve lost America.”

I in all honesty agree with Dustin, and his sentiment is one that is rampant among many of the still FCD Faithful.

If Hicks, Cuban, Jone, or any other owner in any franchise, league, etc. were in Clark’s position of management, there would definitely be some heads on the chopping block. So why Clark has that not happened? Do yourself a favor, and everyone else in Dallas a favor and just get out, get out and don’t ever return. Your father would puke to see what you have done with this.

Preach on, brother Christmann. I agree 100%.

I concur, and will not be renewing either.

My problem with these kinds of letters is that there’s nothing constructive for HSG (or whomever) to take from it. Clark Hunt’s likely reaction? “Oh, crap. Guess we’ll have to work harder. Think another billboard on DNT will help? Maybe what we’re missing is a dance team!”

There’s a problem with the club, and it comes from both a deficit of ideas and a lack of know-how in terms of execution.

The lack of know-how? That’s unacceptable. The lack of ideas? That’s where we have to come in. Because they’re just not aware that what they’re doing isn’t working.

Like a lot of you, I got called by the new director of ticket sales last week. He asked what he could do to make me happy again as a STH. “Win more games?”, he asked.

While I told him I’d take a few more victories, I shocked him with a list of concrete things where FCD falls behind other clubs. These included:

1) Having consistent protocols at each of the entrances (ever try to get a giveaway at the South Gate?)

2) Selling FCD gear at DFW. (SJ does it, Seattle does it, Chivas does it at the frickin Burbank airport…)

…and a bunch more.

When I was done, he couldn’t get over it. He asked me if I was in marketing — and if I’d ever considered working for the team.

I said, “No, why?”

He said, “Well, it’s just that we never even knew that these things were problems. We’re just not aware of them.”

At that point, I had to hang up.

The following comments are based on what SteveToro wrote.

When any organization or business is struggling what the smart ones do is two things: 1) Internal audits and 2) External benchmarking.

It sounds like FCD doesn’t understand these concepts. Especially, based on SteveToro’s letter, the external benchmarking.

In other words, if you’re failing, go where there is success and find out why/what they’re doing works. But gosh, that might take some money & effort….

Make Oscar head coach and pay Andy Swift whatever he wants to return. Maybe even get back some “Hispanic” marketting people, and pay them what they are worth…..

SteveToro says: “2) Selling FCD gear at DFW. (SJ does it, Seattle does it, Chivas does it at the frickin Burbank airport…)”

I travel for business, and can confirm I’ve seen Dynamo stuff at the Houston airport, DC United in DC, and Toronto FC gear in Toronto. I would also regularly hear DC United radio promotions, interviews with players, newspaper ads and articles while in the DC area. Several times I heard DC United players interviewed on the radio.. on ROCK stations! Not even AM sports radio, but actual FM rock stations with huge and disperse audiences… I was shocked of the coverage of the team when I visited there.

SteveToro, who is the new director of ticket sales? Sounds like he has a lot of hoemwork to and FCD didn’t hire someone who knew what the problems were that needed to be fixed.

There are no excuses for this organization.

This is now the worst franchise in MLS. One of the worst teams, worst attendance (when available seats are taken into account), worst television broadcasts (not your fault, buzz, nothing to work with), worst announcers, worst in everything. Hell, even these partnerships with Tigres, CAP, and River Plate are only there so that we don’t have to pay much money for scounting and can get Roccha or Ferriera or whomever handed to us with looking too hard.,

In short, we have become the Clippers of MLS.

If they don’t know what is wrong, they are ignorant by choice. They have had enough meetings with season ticket holders, supporter groups, etc to know what the issues are. They have plenty of access to other franchises in the league to know how to do things right.

However, like the Clippers and the Raiders, they just choose not to.

Don’t make excuses; this organization “is what it is”. There are many organizations in this league who are driving to push the league to new hieghts. And then there is Dallas, happy to be as cheap as humanly possible and ride the coattails of the forerunners. That is what we are, it is time for us all to accept it.

Preach it!

I gave up my tickets this year already…though it broke my heart to do it. Raise ticket prices in a down economy 25%? Nice.

Yet it was, i think, the appearance of dancing girls that finished it for me. Like a sign of the apocalypse.

I had second thoughts of course with 3 young boys. So first game of the season i packed them up and thought “let’s go see the game” like we have for years. At the gate they informed me that all the cheap seats were sold and that the best they could do was $60 per ticket as i looked past the ticket counter to see a stadium with maybe 5,000 in it 5 minutes after kickoff.

I put my wallet back in my pocket and walked my disappointed kids back to the car and we have not been back.

I miss the old days.

I am completely and utterly flabbergasted by the director of sales’ reaction to being told what is wrong. They are either inept for not knowing, or dishonest for feigning ignorance.

Rightback,

Your situation is one reason why I think a General Admission endline is a good idea. Beside the fact that you can perhaps make it a more festive atmosphere, there are always seats available and not for $60.

Would FCD rather have made $50 off your family that night or turn you away on the chance that someone might buy the $60 tickets? It’s just not smart business and it’s about par for this organization.

Season tickets? I don’t know if I want to go to the next game muchless give these guys the gratification of laughing their ass off while they’re on their way to the bank with my money. The sad part is that $170 is a steal and I just can’t get myself to do it.

“Make Oscar head coach and pay Andy Swift whatever he wants to return. Maybe even get back some “Hispanic” marketting people, and pay them what they are worth.”

This would be a nice place to start.

What’s upsetting to me is the people in the ticket office that still have jobs. Wish I could name names, but seems like you can keep your sales job by doing the bare minimum.

As far as the marketing folks are concerned, their heart is in the right place, but they just don’t know soccer.

Thirdly, we may never see the return of the Hispanic fan base, that just seems obvious.

The Hunts own the Chiefs and have been exploiting its fans for many years with mediocre teams. Just recently did the fans wake up and stop going to the games. Now, they have to sell their tickets and put a good product on the field. What a concept.

The same thing is happening to the Hoops. To HSG, these franchises are just businesses.

1) Yet another reason why I respect El Jefe.
2) Great post by SteveToro.
3) Obviously FCD is the step-child to Columbus. Why? Read on.
4) Prediction: Hunts will put FCD up for sale to help finance buying a Premier League team.
5) Get used to driving to Houston.

My understanding is that HSG wants to sell Columbus and keep Dallas.

Right on Jefe.

Turns out the thing I thought I’d miss the most about moving to Austin (aside from friends of course) isn’t really a problem at all. Maybe HSG is just trying to make me feel better.

[...] your club’s biggest fan since day one sends an open letter of despair to ownership in lieu of a season ticket renewal, you have serious problems. Dustin Christmann is known to FC Dallas supporters as the  “First [...]

I understand the feelings Dustin shares.

Couple of quick hits:

NEW director of sales – old one did lose job, new had no way to know before he joined FCD but is working hard to listen to us and learn – he has only been here a few weeks – Kris Katseanes.

Our job is to write to them, call them, talk to them. They read the boards and the comments – but contact them directly. Be civil, be constructive.

Kris has been here two months. Plenty of time to catch up with all the issues. Not his fault, management should have made him aware, JW and the new marketing director, who has been here since december. The problem is, there are so many issues, it seems almost too overwhelming.

How the heck did this organization get to this point? Remember the winter off season of 02/03 and how positive things looked? Attendance had been steadily inching its way up year after year. We were getting a new owner, a new stadium. The team had just finished one of its best seasons ever. Even after the hiccups of Southlake and the miserable 04 season, once 05 rolled around, and the team moved to PHP, and the inept GE was removed, things seemed positive all over again. Now we are the laughingstock of MLS. We are the Clippers of MLS. What the heck happened? Who is responsible for getting us in this mess? The person Kris replaced? Heck no, the people at the top above him. Until that changes, things may get a little better, but overall, things will remain the same.

Marcio Leite for FC DALLAS COACH, everyone should agree….

Everyone has highlighted well all the worsts that FCD has become, minus one. The fans. Lets tell it like it is, we have the worst fans and supporter groups in the league. Do we have 2 or three groups now? Combined, they are regularly put to shame by the road team in Houston. I hate the Houston home games. It is EMBARRASSING! If you are reading this, this is likely not a shot at you, cause you must care enough to be here during this miserable season.
Thanks for reopening the discussion Dustin. We are all pissed like you.

Dave-O, what have you done personally to make the supporters group situation in dallas better? How have you helped?

I was around in the early days and had a lot of fun with Dustin and the others. I had season tickets the first few years but didn’t need them as I was writing about the team and had a media credential. I eventually gave up the tickets and no longer write about the team. I haven’t been out to PHP since 2006 but had planned to begin going back this season. After watching on TV and following the team through media reports I haven’t been excited enough to make the long drive from the mid-cities.

It makes me sad to see what has happened to such a fine club. I miss the fun, the good soccer, the camaraderie, but I doubt I’ll make that long drive again any time soon.

Ed

Hey steve don’t feel badly the Crew don’t sell any kind of gear at either Columbus airport and guess who owns them. If you said Hunt you would be right. How can the children of the man so responsible for the existence of the MLS be so oblivious to it’s plight.

JC I am sure they could get back alot of they Hispanic fans if they had the right personell working there.If you don’t know who they are, ask some former fans. Especially the ones from El Salvador. They were great fans way back when.. Ask some of them. Ask some of the Inferno who know…Ask around. It could be done. BUT, the bottom line is….Hispanics don’t buy season tickets. They don’t want to depend on a walk-up crowd. They’d have to be good for that to help….

Pretty simple – the issue is that Clark has aenabled John Wagner to run this place into the ground. Hitchcock no longer runs the place and hasn’t since the end of last season. Team hasn’t performed, but it wasn’t performing the past 2 years either, but the #’s in the stands (actual bodies, not attendance #’s, which we know are different) steadily rose through last year. Then JW takes over and doesn’t have a sales director from last Oct. until 2 months ago!? Another brilliant idea by the bean counter trying to save a buck! I’m not renewing my Season Tickets either – Sorry Jose, but your boss is a joke.

Similar to what I have recently done on other blogs, I wanted to ‘informally’ introduce myself to those of you I have not yet met. I’m the new Director of Sales & Service for FC Dallas, recently coming from Real Salt Lake.

Please know that you can contact me at anytime with any question, concern, feedback, etc. My contact information is:

Direct Line – 214.705.6745
Cell – 469.525.9943
E-mail – kkat@fcdallas.net

I look forward to meeting more of you, and learning from your perspective and experience to help make us better!

Kris Katseanes

You have any pulling power to get Smellus fired? Thats the first thing FCD need to do.

Please note the boss I was referring to was JW “the infamous bean counter”.

Kris you are climbing straight up hill with very little resources I would bet and a boss who doesn’t “get it”. Best of luck to you, but you should have stayed at RSL.

To sum up my feelings drawn from a number of posts covering many areas:

1) Many think SH must go. I have long been on the fence in this matter, but now agree.

2) I always wondered why FCD collected draft picks and Generation Addidas players as both seemed long term solutions. And FCD wasn’t doing anything (enough) for the Short term. The Kenny Cooper sale, and information I picked up here, allowed me to understand. Cooper made HSG millions. The coming sale of Shea will make HSG millions. So, many people here (I also now include myself in this group) don’t trust HSG to put a good product on the field. They seem to be interested in making money not producing a winner. The sales of Cooper & Shea will probably outway losses from ticket sales. Am I wrong about this?

Does anybody here have access to Mark Cuban? If so, please suggest to him that there is a sports team in Dallas that has great potential to be both profitable and a winner if the right owner and management team are in place. Cuban could fix the business and apply his marketing knowledge generate buzz and butts in seats. He could also get the team to hire the right coach and build a winning team on the field.

I know its a long shot but I wish someone would pitch the case to Cuban. Unfortunately I don’t have access to him.

I stopped going last year. From a surburban family man leaving in Arlington, Mansfield. The decay of this team has little to do with the team. Nobody really cares who is playing for minor league baseball teams, but people still go. I actually like a lot of the players except Cunnigham (Loss of Cooper just plain dumb). But, the alienation began putting a stadium 2 hours away from at least 1/3 of the metroplex. And an hour away from a huge chunk of built in fans.

The team seemed to try and make it a family event, but that is the worst marketing ploy. You bring in fans that want to come and enjoy soccer. The fanatics and the money people The suburban family doesn’t buy season tickets, they go when they have the money and time. Didn’t they learn from Southlake.

And why is it our job to tell them ideas? It is their job to figure that out. I don’t get paid to tell them. In the end you have to make it worth the time for someone to go to a game. It isn’t worth 2 hours drive time for me to go to a game and even like watching this team play most of the time.

Real Estate Location Location Location And they went nice but cheap and paid the price. I fully suspect this team won’t be here or will be struggling to make ends meet in a year or two.

Great point Wheezer. Families are the wrong target. How many 10 year olds do you see at an EPL game? Historian, you are right. Its all my fault.

RSL fans are in agreement that letting Kats get away was a bone-headed move for the RSL FO.

Kris is one of the FO people who really “get it.”

[...] end up like FC Dallas, alienating its fanbase completely and seemingly awaiting euthanasia. There, an open letter of a different sort was recently penned to their ownership by Dustin Christmann, a founder of the Inferno supporters’ group, in which he writes that his frustration has led [...]

If I remember correctly, didn’t Eddie Caravacho come down to FC Dallas? The guy responsible for creating La Turbina Amarilla up here in Columbus, our Latino supporter’s group? If he truly is down there, that should really help you guys out in reaching your Latino fan base.

He did, and yes he’s been very impressive.

[...] owner Hunt Sports Group has lost a few fans. Among the issues: FCD’s head coach is Schellas Hyndman, the longtime Southern Methodist [...]